An activist and President, Campaign for Dignity in Governance (CDG), Comrade Razaq Olokoba has called on the people of Lagos State to show understanding with Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu over his recent announcement of total ban on the operation of commercial motorcycles (Okada) on the State’s major highways and in some six Local Government areas of the state.
Olokoba, in a statement Thursday, expressed the conviction that, Governor Sanwo-Olu will never announce a policy that will ever hurt the good people of the state, expressing the need to show understanding with the governor because the decision to take the step must have been for the good of the people.
The activist and political analyst, was reacting to the announcement of the governor made after a brief meeting with security operative at the Government House where the activities of the affected operators were examined and found to be dangerous and injurious to the wellbeing of the citizenry.
Olokoba, who said the decision took some time to come because of the governor’s penchant to listen to all sides of the issue before taking a step, reminding that, while millions of the people would support a policy, another millions would be against and the onion is on the administrator to sieve through and weigh the merit and demerit of the matter before striking a balance.
His statement also noted that, “the restriction law was not new but revival of an existing law that is still subsisting in the state since 2012 which the current administration is just revisiting for the good of his people,” expressing the need to support the governor and cooperate with his administration to cleanse the state of anything that could cause havoc to the citizenry.
Olokoba however made it abundantly clear that, Sanwo-Olu can never make any law as a punitive measure for any section of the people of the state, urging the people, especially the affected operators to see the development as consideration for the safety of lives of the people whose welfare is the responsibility of any responsible and responsive government like the current administration in the state.
Going down the memory lane, the CDG boss reminded the people about the number of accidents involving that means of transportation in the state and the resultant effects that has led to death and in several cases amputation of limps which has rendered a lot of victims permanently disabled in life!
“The ban and restriction as far as we know, will also serve as a security measure since it is a well-known fact that some unscrupulous elements in the society do use it to rob the innocent and unsuspecting members of the community,” the statement submitted, saying, “Sanwo-Olu deserves commendation and not condemnation on his latest step taken to sanitize the environment.”
The statement also reminded that, beside the worrisome statistics from the hospitals and security agencies’ files, the policy will also go a long way to reduce, not only the carnage but rate of kidnapping/abductions, robbery and rape some of the operators perpetrated, reasoning that, a state like Lagos that is working very hard to attain a mega status should discard such crude system of transportation.
